


dream of a normal death

by LittleMissLiesmith



Series: On The Existence of Angels in Night Vale [3]
Category: Good Omens - Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett, Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Alcoholism, M/M, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-17
Updated: 2014-08-17
Packaged: 2018-02-13 13:20:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2152272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleMissLiesmith/pseuds/LittleMissLiesmith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Adam Young moves into the other house out by the car lot six months later.</p><p>Or,</p><p>There's a reason why Cecil and Carlos started to remember and it isn't a very good one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	dream of a normal death

**Author's Note:**

> This is better than the original sequel I posted but still, I think, not as good as the first. Tell me what you think, enjoy!

Adam Young moves into the other house out by the car lot six months later.

It's getting harder and harder to forget; nearly every night Cecil and Carlos find the bottom of a bottle, and even then their episodes get earlier each day. Cecil has had to leave the radio station early because the memories overwhelm; Carlos has had his team panicking because they return to the lab only to find him screaming, hands pressed to temples.

"What happens when drinking it away stops working?" Aziraphale asks Crowley one night as they sit down with a bottle of cheap whiskey.

The demon looks chagrined. "I don't know, but I doubt anything good. Best case scenario we're immortal in a mortal town. Worst case scenario they track us down again."

Aziraphale sighs heavily and pours the first round. "And I don't much suppose they like that we found each other." He pushes a shotglass to Crowley. "One."

The demon lifts it and meets his eyes. "Two."

The whiskey burns on the way down, but it's Cecil and Carlos who stumble into bed and Cecil and Carlos who wake up in the morning.

-O-

Adam Young is thirty-three. Carlos and Cecil are twenty-two.

This would probably amuse them if they were in any mood to be amused.

Cecil knows about it first, if only because there's a two second delay between recording and broadcast time for censorship purposes.

" _Old Woman Josie, out by the car lot, says four new travellers have arrived in town on coloured motorbikes. She says the leader is a youngish man with the face of..._ " Cecil falters. On-air. It's a rare occurrence. " _With the face of an angel, if angels existed, which they don't. S-she says that his companions are a woman and two more men all his age, that the woman looks dangerous, one of them men looks filthy, and the other looks hungry._ "

"The Them," Carlos--or maybe more Crowley at the moment--says when Cecil picks up the phone during the weather. "It's got to be."

"I know," Cecil says quietly.

" _Old Woman Josie says that they have started up a fix-it and that the leader held a conversation with one of the angels, which does not exist. She says the hungry man helped her fix a broken porch swing and that the dangerous woman immediately left to visit the Moonlite All-Nite Diner, where according to Larry Leroy out on the edge of town she promptly started three fights and received a marriage proposal by sitting at the bar and drinking a milkshake._ "

-O-

If you could put all the music from bar scenes set in the 1920s and 1930s into one song, it would be what is playing at the Moonlite All-Nite Diner as six men nurse black eyes and bloody noses, two nurse drinks, and one nurses a broken heart. Pippin Galadriel "Pepper" Moonchild, also known as War, sits at the bar, sipping her milkshake innocently.

"Nice to see you boys again," she says when Cecil and Carlos approach her.

"This is the first we've met," Carlos says stiffly.

She raises an eyebrow up to a fiery red hairline. Pepper, it seems, has grown into her role; she is exactly as beautiful and unapproachable as the original War. "Silly boys, we all know that isn't true."

Cecil sighs and looks at her. "What's going to happen to us?" he asks urgently. "To--to me and Carlos? Why are you _here_?"

Pepper looks at him with some amount of sympathy. "Oh, Aziraphale. You already know." She reaches out a slender hand and gently caresses his cheek. "It isn't your old allies looking, it's _them_. Below. Not us-Them, although you can think of us as scouts of a sort."

Cecil almost sobs. "No--no. You're wrong."

"You're the one who wanted to know."

"I'm an angel!" He ignores the sharp looks, the Secret Policeman that pops up from behind a potted plant. "They can't take me!"

"You stopped being an angel twenty-two years ago, and not just by turning human," Pippin Galadriel "Pepper" Moonchild says, not unkindly.

Cecil reaches for Carlos's hand desperately, holding on tight as the scientist grabs a bottle of whiskey and ushers him out.

-O-

Cecil Gershwin Palmer is a radio host.

Aziraphale is currently Cecil Gershwin Palmer.

Aziraphale is no longer an angel.

An angel is the one thing Aziraphale was.

"That's not true," Carlos says, and Cecil realizes he spoke aloud. "Cecil, that isn't true. You were so much more--you _are_ so much more." He reaches across the table and encases one of Cecil's hands with both of his own. "You're human. We both are. And--and you're smart and kind and beautiful and you love the town."

Cecil smiles sadly. "Those are all things _Cecil Gershwin Palmer_ is," he says. "What happens when I wake up and I'm not him?"

-O-

He goes to visit Adam the next morning while he's still mostly Cecil and Aziraphale's memories and personality are in the back of his mind, enough that he knows who Adam is but not enough that he isn't himself.

Adam is underneath a car when Cecil arrives and Wensleydale gently kicks him. "Boss? Hey, Boss, we've got a customer."

Adam slides out, looks at Cecil, and says "Wensleydale, Brian, go take a break."

They scatter and Adam stands. The beautiful child has become a beautiful man, golden curls framing a strong-featured face, and his eyes are now black. "Aziraphale."

"My name is Cecil Palmer," Cecil says.

"Right, whatever. What can I do you for?"

Cecil swallows hard. "You...Pepper says you're here because Below sent you after us," he says.

"True."

"I...if anyone knows how, it would be you. Is there a way for Carlos and I to stay us?"

Adam's expression is unreadable. "No. You're just prolonging the inevitable. Below's mad and the closer they get to arriving here, the more Aziraphale and Crowley will come back. When they get here whoever you were will be gone. Sorry."

He doesn't look sorry and something in Cecil snaps. He grabs Adam's shoulders and pins him to the hood of the car. "You're _wrong!_ You've got to be wrong!" He shakes the man violently. "You lying little--"

Adam punches him in the nose. Cecil retaliates by pulling his hair. Within five minutes Adam has won and Cecil is ready to cry, not from the pain. "Cecil Gershwin Palmer," he whispers. "I'm Cecil Gershwin Palmer. And he's Dr. Carlos Mendez. Aren't we--aren't they--" He closes his eyes and feels tears rolling down his cheeks. "Aren't we good men? Aren't I a good man? Why can't _I_ stay? Who decided Aziraphale has to win out?"

He looks at Adam and Adam stares right back. "Can't I just be Cecil Palmer? Night Vale is different, but I was happy here as Cecil Palmer. All I want is to be with Carlos."

"You can't," Adam says, but at least this time there's a hint of sympathy.

-O-

The day Cecil struggles to hold onto himself and winds up on the couch with a fever, Carlos goes into the radio station and takes over.

He refused to tell Cecil what he said, instead slipping into bed and curling tightly around him, legs tucked up together and hands clasped, Cecil's back pressed against his chest.

For the night they pretend everything will be okay.

-O-

Cecil wakes to his phone going off. Nearly a hundred missed calls and over a thousand texts from everyone in Night Vale.

"You might wanna get on that," says a voice from the ceiling.

"I'm pretty sure I didn't ask for your opinion," Cecil says, grabbing his phone. "I was gone for a day!"

"Look at the texts," Carlos says with an air of _I-know-something-you-don't._

Cecil does.

Everyone from Steve Carlsberg to Meghan to Tamika Flynn has texted him.

**Yes, of course.**

**When do we start?**

**Of course we'll help.**

**I've got my army all ready.**

**I'll help and the Erikas want to too.**

**Of course I'll help you.**

**I'll be over tomorrow.**

**We'll be ready.**

**Yes.**

**Yes.**

**Of course.**

**I'll help.**

**We'll help.**

"What...what did you ask them?" Cecil murmurs, barely able to breathe. Carlos's arms snake around his midsection and he rests his chin on Cecil's shoulder.

"I told them that their Voice and I were in trouble, in danger, and asked if they would help," he says. "I figure we can go down fighting and if we somehow win, Below will go away--and according to Adam, it's their noticing us that's making Aziraphale and Crowley return. When they're gone, we'll be able to stay us."

"And...Carlos, this is _everyone_!"

Carlos chuckles. "Ceec, angel, you're the Voice of Night Vale. Everyone knows you. Everyone loves you. Did you really think that when the time came that you needed help--at least, help against an outside force--that you would have to do anything more than _ask_?"

-O-

The sword is unfamiliar in Cecil's grasp and doesn't flare up. That's a good sign--it means he's still in control.

Carlos is holding a tire iron.

"Really?" Cecil asks, eyebrows raised.

"Hey, it worked last time."

Behind them is a motley force of Night Vale citizens holding makeshift weapons (except for the Sheriff's Secret Police, all of whom are armed with impressive guns, and the Vague Yet Menacing Government Agents, who have tank--although it's bright pink and possibly made of plastic and cotton candy). Cecil and Carlos watch from the front line as Below's forces get closer, the sun rising behind them.

It's quite the army.

But so are they.

"Just hold into yourself a little longer and it'll be over," Carlos murmurs, taking Cecil's hand. "Are you ready?"

Cecil squeezes, fingers entwining with Carlos's. "Not in the least."

And together they stand and watch the sun rise.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos are appreciated, comments are fawned over and read repeatedly.
> 
> ...someone bookmarked this with the comment "best crossover ever". Dear person: marry me?


End file.
